Vocabulary
by suburbs
Summary: Nate's daughter introduces him to Word Girl and Captain Huggy Face. Then he introduces her to the dictionary. Companion to Daddy's Turn and Naptime.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Camp Rock, Tivo or Word Girl (but I like saying Captain Huggy Face).

Author's Note: elona36 suggested a story with Nate and the girls. She was probably expecting something a little more emotional and touching, but the Annabelle and Melody in my life recently told me something I said was preposterous.

"Hi Daddy," Annabelle said to Nate as she entered his office. "Are you okay? You look pensive."

Nate raised an eyebrow at his six-year old."Really? I look pensive?"

Annabelle nodded and sat down near her dad, "You do. Like you are thinking about something."

He shook his head. Sometimes his children said the strangest things, "Well, Ms. Annabelle, I'm having a problem here. Maybe you could help me out."

Annabelle beamed. She loved helping her dad, and he was usually so good at things that he didn't need help very often. "Sure Daddy! What can I do?"

Nate smiled at her enthusiasm. He obviously needed to come up with some projects to do with the girls if helping him out seemed this exciting to her. "Well, I am working on a song, and I can't seem to get it right. How about you listen to it and tell me what you think?"

Annabelle looked skeptical, "Okay, Daddy. Why don't you play it for me?"

Nate started to strum his guitar. Annabelle watched him carefully. He set down his guitar and looked at her expectantly when he finished. "So what did you think?"

Annabelle wrinkled her nose, "You're right, Daddy – it isn't very good."

Nate laughed."Well, my little helper, what do you think I should do?"

His daughter tilted his head before replying, "I don't know, Daddy. You should probably ask Mommy or Uncle Shane. They're good at that." She gave Nate a serious look. "You know it's sort of preposterous to expect a six-year old to fix your song, right?"

"Well even your dad gets to be preposterous every once in awhile," Nate replied.

Annabelle smiled, "How about I just give you a hug and a kiss?"

Annabelle jumped into her father's lap and gave him a big kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and held her for a moment. He couldn't believe how big she was getting. He made a mental note to take some time off soon to do something special with the girls.

All of a sudden, Annabelle pulled away and gave her dad a mischievous look. "I know what we can do to help you!" she exclaimed. "How about we go devour some of Mom's chocolate chip cookies?"

"Okay, what's going on?" Nate exclaimed. "Devour? Preposterous? Who are you and what have you done with my six-year old?"

Annabelle rolled her eyes at her father, "Daddy, I learned them from Word Girl!"

"Who's Word Girl?" Nate asked.

"Daddy, don't you know? It's my favorite TV show ever! She's a superhero from the planet Lexicon who fights crime with her monkey sidekick Captain Huggy Face."

Nate wasn't sure how to respond to that. Could that actually be a real show? It sounded like something Jason would make up to annoy Shane.

"It's educational and entertaining."

"Really?" Nate asked drily.

"Well, that's what Mommy says," Annabelle said with a shrug. "I just think it's funny. And the words are cool." She paused for a moment. "So, cookies?"

Nate nodded. "How about we grab some cookies and milk and go watch some Word Girl?"

Annabelle grinned as she climbed down from her father's chair. Nate followed her towards the kitchen listening intently as his daughter spoke. "Can we, Dad? I think we should watch the one with the Beef Jerky of Supreme Power. It is so funny because the Butcher can never say 'supreme' right…"

Later that evening as Nate sat with Jason and Shane working on the song, he found himself humming to himself. Jason looked up and sang, "Word up, it's Word Girl!"

Nate joined in, "Flying at the speed of sound. Vocabulary that astounds…"

The two friends looked at each other and burst out laughing. Shane looked at his bandmates like they were totally insane. When Nate finally caught his breath he asked Jason, "Annabelle have you watch it?"

Jason nodded. "Yeah, but it's really good. I actually have a season pass on my Tivo. I love Chuck the Evil Sandwich Guy."

Nate laughed again and turned to Shane, "I think we should start calling Jason Captain Huggy Face."

Shane stood up clearly not amused and headed towards the office door. "I'm going to go grab some cookies from the kitchen, and when I get back can we all start acting like grown-ups?"

Nate grinned at Jason as he called after his friend, "Shane, don't devour all the cookies!"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own _Camp Rock_, _The Pigeon Wants a Puppy_ by Mo Willems or _Scholastic Children's Dictionary_.

_Author's Note: The real Annabelle, who is six-and-a-half, recently got her first dictionary, and the sulfur conversation actually happened. It seemed like such a perfect follow-up to Vocabulary that I had to write it down. It's short and sort of random._

"Hey, Annabelle," Nate called as he walked in the door. "I have a surprise for you!"

Nate could hear her footsteps as she raced out of her room and down the stairs towards where he stood in the kitchen. He was fairly certain she was going to love her present and was excited to see her reaction. "What is it Daddy?" his six-year-old daughter asked.

He reached into a bag and pulled out a large book. "This, my dear, is a dictionary; it's a book that teaches you new words, sort of like Word Girl. I got it so when you find a word in a book that you don't understand, you can go look it up."

He handed the book over to Annabelle, who opened it to the middle. "Cool," she whispered. She slowly turned the page as she walked away from her father towards the family room couch. "Thanks Daddy!" she added. Then without looking up, "Did you get something for Melody too?"

At that moment, Nate silently thanked Jason for reminding him that if he took a book home for one girl, he needed to get one for the other. He reached into the bag, pulled out _The Pigeon Wants a Puppy _and held it up for Annabelle to see. She briefly glanced up at her father and nodded before looking back at the dictionary.

"Nice," she said. "Uncle Jason pick that one?"

Nate laughed. "How'd you know?"

"It's about a bird, Dad."

"I guess that is a pretty good hint. But the dictionary was all me," he said proudly. He headed over towards the couch and sat down. "What are you reading about?"

"Minerals," she answered. "Look," she said pointing to a picture of a yellow rock. "That's sulfur. Let's look that up next." Annabelle flipped through the pages until she found the word she was looking for. "A yellow chemical element used in gunpowder, matches and fertilizer. See minerals," Annabelle read. She paused and reread the sentence to herself before looking up at her father. "Gunpowder, matches and fertilizer? Why do they put sulfur in fertilizer? The other two things can explode, but you don't want fertilizer to explode or catch on fire?"

Nate tried hard not to laugh at his daughter. "I don't know honey. That's a good question."

"The dictionary told me to see minerals, so maybe if I go back there it will explain," Annabelle reasoned. She quickly flipped back to the mineral entry and read quietly to herself before exclaiming, "There's not enough information, Daddy. This is disappointing. I need to know more."

"You know what Annabelle, the dictionary only gives you a definition, a little bit of information. If you want to find out more, you have to go look in an encyclopedia."

Annabelle raised an eyebrow at her father. He sighed and stood up. "Okay, get your shoes on. We'll go back to the bookstore and see if they have an encyclopedia."

Annabelle grinned. "Thanks, Daddy. But don't feel bad; I really like the dictionary."

Nate smiled at his daughter and ruffled her hair. "I'm glad sweetheart."


End file.
